I've been thinking on the new creation for the last several years, and the more I think about it, the more I realize and see that the idea over the last 50 to 60 years about changing the world are inaccurate; from the point of view of the Bible.
To this day all we here about it seems from many Christians is we must change the world in order to make it a better place. That's an idea that will never work.
The reason why is Jesus Christ never came to change the world, because the world had already forever been put under judgement, and is to this day.
When Jesus died for our sins, He didn't do it for the purpose of having us continue to be part of the dead, old creation, He did it because He was doing a totally, completely new thing, which is identified as the new creation.
Even the word translated in the Holy Scriptures as church needs to be thought of differently, because it basically means being called out, which points to leaving the old creation for the new.
Jesus said in John 15:19, "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."
What Jesus has amazingly done and which few understand, is He isn't trying to save the world, in the sense of working on it to make it better, it can't be done. It's cursed and dead. Instead He has birthed an entire new creation in the midst of the fallen and cursed world, which is so different than the old creation that it stands as a light calling those still in the old dark creation out of it to the new.
This amazing new creation is the very life of Christ Himself. Now many at this time will probably question the creation part because Jesus Christ has no beginning and no end, and has always been. So from that point of view He could never be created. And you're right ... if you're thinking in terms of the old, physical creation.
But the new creation isn't a created creation, but it is a birthed creation. The new creation is one that has been given birth by the very life of Jesus Christ Himself within a people. It is Christ in you.
So back to the idea of improving the world. I hope you see it's impossible and not part of the plan of God at all. His plan is for an entirely different life to be released in the earth through a people He has called out of it.
Now that will definitely make the earth a better place, but it has nothing to do with adding something onto the world in a way that can make it better. This is why the Scriptures teach if you love the world you're an enemy of God.
James 4:4 "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."
This is one reason why those who pursue and seek for God with a pure heart never feel part of this world and its evil.
John added, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." 1 John 2:15
The reason for all of this is God has an entirely new creation He as birthed, and it is in His Son. All who have truly been born again from above have had this new creation come down out of heaven in the person of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit, and are no longer of this world. The two are entirely opposite of one another, and are in fact enemies of one another. There is absolutely no connecting point between them.
So what God has done is completely gotten rid of the old creation and replaced it with the new creation of His son. Old things have passed away, all things have now become new.
What that means for the followers of Jesus Christ is we have not only been born of God and are now His children, but an entire new creation is dwelling in us, and as we learn its principles, we don't attempt to add something on top of a world that is no longer considered even alive by God, but instead create our own world, or more properly, recreate under the leading of guiding of the Holy Spirit, from the many-sided wisdom of God that is revealed in Jesus Christ.
This is some of what was meant when Jesus Christ said as part of His response to His disciples when they asked Him how to pray, that we should ask that His kingdom should come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
We want that heavenly kingdom to come to earth and permeate it with the fullness of Jesus Christ. That can only be done in a people that have a new creation in them, and who learn how to express that kingdom into the physical universe. It begins with changing within, but then working its way out for all to see.
Those who see this will encounter a major paradigm shift, as they realize this world can't be improved and is dead in the eyes of God. What He has done is far greater than that. He has brought about an entire new creation by birthing His Son in those who put their faith in Him.
Now this will result in salt and light existing in the physical creation and world system, but it will be something totally other than it, as Jesus Christ is completely and totally opposite of what this world is and represents.
God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow ... And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:9-11
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
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